


Elixir

by Foxfire74



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Aftermath, Gen, Mourning, Pining, apparently sad!Vector gives me feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 23:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14413197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foxfire74/pseuds/Foxfire74
Summary: "When you disappeared, the nest limited our connection to them. They couldn't bear to experience losing you."





	Elixir

“Dawn Herald.” Child Tender kept a gentle distance from the man hunched on a bench outside the sleeping chambers, in the same way she would have kept her hands well clear of a new-child's bruised limb. “May we speak with you?”

Wordlessly, he shifted to make room for her, a wry note of self-awareness thrumming beneath his song. “We would not wish to cause you pain by mingling our auras. Ask.”

Thus invited, she sat down beside him and laid one wrinkled brown hand on the sleeve of his longcoat. “The nest feels your weariness. And your-” She stumbled over the next word. “Pain. It must be eased. It affect the Joiners, the soldiers, the fingerlings. Even the eggs, in time.”

“We understand. We have endeavoured-”

“It's not enough.”

He flinched, and Child Tender realized how far lost he was, to hear the nest's concern as castigation. “Dawn Herald. We do not reject you. You have saved many of us when the Empire would try to hide behind a wall of our bodies. We wish to ease our pain, not add to yours.”

A corner of his mouth quirked. “We find this course of action...desirable. But we do not know how it may be achieved.”

“The simplest solution would be to limit your connection with the nest.” The hair on the backs of her arms rose at the idea of such isolation. “We have prepared an elixir that will mute your presence and prevent harm to the nest. We would still hear and know one another, but the closeness, the auras-” One hand lifted helplessly. Basic did not have the words she needed, and even she was reluctant to blend auras with the Dawn Herald. “And yet...we have sung long over this. You are needed as Dawn Herald, yet this—autonomy—is worsening the disruption caused by the death of your mate. If you wish, you may release your responsibilities and rejoin the peace of the nest. Taste the wax once more, become a new-child and grow again.”

“And forget.”

“The nest remembers her. We would forget only the pain.”

He thought, conflicting currents roiling his aura, for a long time before he set his jaw and straightened. “A song like hers will not come again. We do not wish to see something so irreplaceable lost.” A steadying breath. “The elixir, please. We will— _I_ will endure.”

She bowed her head. “As you wish.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I contracted a major case of the feels from the Vector reunion and wanted to write about them. I also wanted to try portraying the Killik mind sympathetically; telepathic bugs creep ME out, but they're doing their best by the Dawn Herald.


End file.
